


Reconnect

by icantwriteyo



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Life Is Strange 2
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety Disorder, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Reincarnation, Second Chances, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-05-18 18:22:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19340038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icantwriteyo/pseuds/icantwriteyo
Summary: Finn dies at the hands of Merrill. Sean dies of old age in a beach house.But that's just the beginning of their story.





	1. Death and Rebirth

”Daniel, MOVE!” Sean had cried out in desperation, training the gun on Merrill and pulling the trigger. He had never held a gun before, much less pulled the trigger of one. Despite that, his hand had been so steady, so sure.

 

But he only hit Merrill’s shoulder, only wounded him and angered him. Time didn’t slow in the next few moments. In fact, it seemed sped up, rushed towards the inevitable and awful fate to be bestowed upon Finn. “Motherfucker…!” Merrill cried out in pain.

 

“Merrill, don’t…” Finn had shifted forward, had diverted Merrill’s attention away from the brothers. Had protected them one last time. It was sudden, the exhalation of pain before his body tumbled down. There was no final declarations of love, no witty quips, no see you laters, no goodbyes.

 

Slumped against a dirty couch, eyes shut and still, color draining from his face. Finn’s life gone as quickly as one could blow out the flame of a candle. 

 

“Daniel, don’t look…” Sean had pleaded with his baby brother. He could still feel the stinging warmth of Finn’s lips against his own as he lost consciousness, the pressure of his brother's power barely penance for what he had caused.

 

Cassidy had found him and three corpses in the morning. She should have left him there to die, to rot inches from him, from where he lay. “Finn is dead.” Sean had chanted in delirium as Cassidy and Hannah worked with pain pills and stitches and needles to fix his eye. “Daniel is gone.” He repeated.

 

“Yes, Sean, I’m so sorry.” Cassidy would say. 

 

They had parted ways not long after, insuring that Sean’s eye was not infected. He was alone, but not for long. Daniel was powerful, but predictable. He found him with his mother. Their mother. Karen.

 

He was too broken to muster up the anger he had built over the years and direct it at her. He was just...tired. Daniel was furious, but his fury didn’t last. Not when he had seen how broken Sean was. Not when he saw the scar that was once his window into the world that he drew so lovingly.

 

It seemed that Karen came through for them in the end, in her own way. She agreed with Sean, agreed that the US wouldn’t be safe for them. She had smuggled them to Mexico so easily that Sean wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t the first time she had done something like that.

 

Puerto Lobos. A beautiful beachside village. A great aunt they didn’t know they had, who shared Esteban and Daniel’s smile, but Sean’s eyes. Their father’s plot of land and small home was theirs.

 

They never saw Karen again.

 

-

Sean drew again, as well as he used to. He just had to do it differently, was all. Becoming an art teacher at their small community’s elementary school came naturally. It didn’t pay well, but it paid enough. 

 

Daniel went to college. He met a girl named Maria with keen green eyes and coppery hair. She had enough fire in her soul to keep up with Daniel, but was stable and supportive enough to where Sean knew she wouldn’t run away, she wouldn’t leave his little brother.

 

They got married, after Daniel graduated. Sean was happy for them, and somehow, some way, familiar faces made it to the wedding. It was good to see them - Brody, Lyla, Chris, and others. It was startling, what a little more of a decade can make the runaway of two boys into a myth. A tale. Their trace forgotten on the sands of their beach.

 

Daniel moved away eventually, with Maria. But he visited Sean. Always made it a habit to. Especially after he had his sons, Chris and Esteban. Sean had other visitors, too. 

 

They even visited him once. More tattoos, piercings, faces aged over time but still recognizable. “We’re headed down to Costa Rica.” Cassidy had said with soft, sad eyes. “Just...seems right.”

“Yeah.” Sean had said, voice devoid of emotion, of the pain boiling beneath his skin. He had locked those memories away, did every night, every day, as he sketched him from memory. Filling book after book. “Do you believe in soulmates?”

 

“I dunno.” Her thick accent replied, soft and understanding.

 

“I lost mine. I lost him. And it was my fault.”

 

His hands trembled as he found a note and a blue bandana folded into a small triangle on the morning after their visit. ‘I kept this all these years, but I think you should have it. Good luck, Sean Diaz’ was scrawled in Cassidy’s messy writing.

 

Sean held the small piece of cloth between his fingers every morning. Even has his hair grayed, as his memories faded, as his hands shook from age and it took him hours to finish sketches that once took mere minutes.

 

Sean Diaz died at 74 years old, found having passed away in his sleep at his kitchen table in that little beachside cottage left to him by his father.

 

Daniel had brought Chris and Esteban with him to go through Sean’s things, following through on his final wishes. 

 

“Hey, dad…” Chris had placed a heavy box down where his father sat in Sean’s living room, sighing to himself as he flipped through paperwork. Sean was nothing if not thorough in his older years. 

 

“Hey, hijo…” Daniel breathed out easily, curiosity piqued as his son flipped the lid off the box to reveal over a dozen sketchbooks. “...wow. I hadn’t realized he filled so many. But, that was Sean, after all…”

 

“Dad...did Uncle Sean know someone named Finn?” Chris asked as he flipped through the pages of a few of the books, careful not to smudge the graphite. 

 

“Finn…” Distant memories of a small knife and bullseye, a drawling accent, sparkling eyes, and excited hands that spoke as much as his mouth did. The gunshot. His death. Daniel swallowed down the painful memory before continuing. “...haven’t heard that name in a long time. He...he was a friend of mine and your uncle’s, a long time ago. Why do you ask?”

 

“There’s a lot...a lot of sketches of him in these books.” Chris said softly, settling in on the latest dated sketchbook. Just a few days before Uncle Sean had passed away, his last sketch of Finn, staring up into the sunset. Immortalized forever on paper.

 

-

 

“No, for the 50th time, you can’t stay with me at the dorm room, enano.” Sean rolled his eyes as he walked alongside his little brother and father. They had just finished settling Sean into his dorm room about an hour ago, a soft drive over to a small cafe for lunch to celebrate. “Don’t think my roommate, whenever he gets in, would appreciate an infestation of annoying little brothers.”

 

Daniel stuck out his tongue, but snapped it back into his mouth as soon as Esteban fixed him with a look. “Behave, mijo. And be happy for your brother! A full ride to this prestigious California art school! Oh, but he has left behind his hardworking, loyal father and adorable little brother to fend for themselves miles away in Seattle!”

 

“A little late to try and guilt me out of going, dad.” Sean chuckled as he held the door to the cafe open for them. It was super hipstery, set up like a new age coffee shop with a larger menu. “I’ll order for us.” Sean decided as his stomach grumbled. Moving in was hard, hunger inducing work. “Any special requests?” 

 

“Get me whatever you get, hijo.” Esteban decided, head getting a little dizzy at the 13 different varieties of coffee.

 

“Ditto.” Daniel beamed.

 

“No coffee for him.” 

 

“Aww, man! Ohhh, get me a strawberry shake.”

 

“It’s a frappe, not a shake.” Sean snorted as he turned away from his family to get in line for the front counter. He was busy texting Lyla pictures of the campus and dorm that he hadn’t realized he was up for several moments. “Oh, uh…” As the barista turned around, time seemed to slow to a standstill.

 

“What can I get for you, sweetie?” 

 

Tears. 

Blood. 

A gunshot. 

Death.

 

Sean didn’t know this man, whose smile had fallen as soon as it appeared when Sean felt tears begin to trail down his cheeks. 

 

At least, he didn’t think he had known this man.


	2. Introduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean settles into school and meets a familiar face, in more ways than one.

Sean was nearly heaving as he looked at this man, the tears just wouldn’t stop. He was beside himself, those concerned, green eyes of a stranger in an apron.

 

The dread that crept up his throat, that consumed him. It was like Sean had seen a ghost, someone long since dead and gone. He hadn’t felt this horrible since his mother left them. The color had drained from the man’s face, his pale skin paler as he stared at Sean, speechless. That made it worse, much worse.

 

He could feel the beginnings of panic attack rising as he backed away from the counter, incapable of handling the situation. A girl with purple hair shoved the barista out of the way and towards the back of the shop. She fixed Sean with a smile so painfully familiar, deja vu that he shouldn’t have. “Goddammit, Finn! Stop scarin’ the customers. Hey, kid...you okay?”

 

Apparently the commotion had gotten Esteban and Daniel’s attention as Sean was finally moved from the spot where he was frozen. His father wrapped a supportive arm around him, steering him out of the cafe from prying eyes. Daniel trailed behind them.

 

Esteben crowded around his older son when they got outside, broad shoulders blocking anything else as he grabbed his hands in his face. “Deep breathes, hijo, it’s okay...you’re here. You’re safe.” It had been a long time since Sean had had a severe panic attack. His anxiety was bad, especially in his early teens, but he had gotten better. He HAD! Fortunately, his father knew just how to calm him down, had years of practice. “Count back from diez with me, okay?”

 

Sean nodded, the tears still fell, but his breath became more steady as he counted down. He was only laced with light hiccups as he got to ‘tres’. Daniel would normally find any excuse to tease or mock his older brother, but not now, instead he opted to squeeze Sean’s hand with his own smaller, warm fingers. 

 

After a few more moments Sean had finally settled down long enough to speak, to string some words together. “Can we go somewhere else for lunch, p-please? I can’t...be there.” ‘I can’t see him.’ Sean thought desperately. “Just, anywhere but there.”

 

“Of course.” Esteban turned on some music as they drove in silence, Sean enjoying the sting of the wind against the dried tears on his face. It was calming, cleared his head a bit. He still couldn’t get those eyes out of his mind, though, the paleness of his skin. It was terrifying. Why was he consumed with such awful, horrible thoughts? He probably scared the shit out of that guy, got him in trouble with his co-workers. It’s not like he did anything wrong. Something in Sean just...broke in that moment. He’d have to mark that cafe off his list of potential hang out or study spots.

 

They ended up at some local fast food place and Sean appreciated that it was a far cry from the hipstery cafe. Dad gave Daniel some money to order them burgers and drinks at the counter. “You wanna talk about what happened there, mijo?”

 

Sean was thankful that he waited until Daniel was away to ask. “I...really don’t know, I just…”

 

“It’s alright, if you need to go back on the medication, Sean.” He felt his father’s hands cover his own, still so big and strong. Fuck, how was he going to last through four years of being away? Dad and Daniel were his anchor, his family. If he lost either of them...

 

“Thanks, dad. I...I know.” He looked down, chewing on his bottom lip. Maybe he was just nervous about college, about being so far away. And it had nothing to do with that man, the one the girl had called Finn. “I’m okay, though, really. I think I’m just...nervous about school, y’know? It’ll be different. Being so far from you and Daniel.”

 

“Don’t I know it?” Esteban gave him a small, loving smile. For a moment, just a slight moment, Sean saw an image of Esteban laid across their lawn back in Seattle, a pool of blood from his chest. Himself, above his own body, reaching out to feel a still warm corpse. 

 

He swallowed, head reeling as he fought back the intrusive thoughts, the fear. Esteban clenched his hand tighter, the simple motion bringing him back to where they were, to what was going on. “Seriously, I’ll be okay.” He reaffirmed his father, thankful that orientation had included where students could get mental health assistance.

 

“Okay.” He nodded and let go of his son’s hand. “And remember, despite what Daniel thinks is going to happen, we aren’t going to remove anything from your room. It’s always there, always your home, mijo.”

 

“Thanks, Dad.”

 

-

 

It was weird, laying in his dorm room bed. A poster of Misty Mouse stared down at him that Daniel had helped him pin up earlier, his pajamas soft and smelling of fresh detergent from home. His roommate still hadn’t come in. Normally he would appreciate some peace and quiet.

 

But the room was empty, foreign to him and his senses. Classes didn’t start for another four days, but he wished they started tomorrow. He could focus on something, anything, besides being left with his thoughts alone. He sat upright, taking out his sketchbook and began to sketch. The sketches lacked his detail, his normal care, but he recalled the few flashes, the few horrible thoughts that felt real earlier that day. 

 

It hurt to draw them. To draw dad...like that. To draw the lifeless face of that man he didn’t know. But it seemed to give him some peace of mind, some way to vent. He drifted off to sleep with the hope that the haunting images would leave him be for those few blissful hours.

 

He was mistaken, as the images followed him to his dreams, haunted by terrified green eyes, bullet wounds. Daniel’s face, speckled with blood that wasn’t his. Himself, with only one eye.

 

Sean woke in a terrified sweat, panting and sobbing. The smell of clean linen replaced with his own musk, holding his hands to his chest. “Fuck, no, no, no…” He muttered to himself.

 

“Whoa, you alright?” A voice he didn’t recognize answered from the bed across from him. “Didn’t mean to scare you, man. Sorry for, uh, moving in so late. You were already clonked out, so...I didn’t wanna wake you.”

 

“No, it’s...it’s okay.” Right. He was in his dorm room. Great fucking first impression. “Uh, Sean. S-Sean Diaz.” He wiped his sweaty hand against his covers as he sat up, taking the other boy’s hand.

 

“Warren Graham!” Warren grinned as he took Sean’s hand in his own and gave it a quick shake. He switched back to putting his things away and slid a cardboard box underneath his bed. “So, uh. Nice to meet you, man. Guess we should get to know each other a little bit more since we’re roomies?”

 

Sean would normally roll his eyes and go back to sleep if someone, meaning Daniel, would try and engage him in a conversation at 3 a.m. But Warren had a point, they were stuck together for at least their freshman year. And Sean was a bit scared to go back to sleep, at what his dreams might bring him. And this Warren guy seemed nice enough. “Uh, sure...so...I’m from Seattle. Uh, I’m an art and graphic designer major.”

 

“Cool! So, you like...draw and shit?”

 

“Yeah.” Sean snorted as Warren rummaged around, offering him some Doritos. Sean took a handful before he settled back on his bed. “I do...draw and shit. Now, the real task, drawing shit and actually getting paid for it.”

 

“Ah.” Warren smiled before he sat back in his own bed. “From Oregon, uh, Arcadia Bay. Biochemistry major.”

 

“Wow, so I got paired with a real brainiac, huh?”

 

“Not sure I’d say brainiac, but...I have been compared to a certain historic figure. Albert Einstein. You MAY have heard of him.” Warren snorted and Sean couldn’t help but laugh a little.

 

It was good to know his roommate wasn’t an asshole, just a bit of a dork. He was a major dork himself, though, so it worked. “Well, I’ll know who to bother for my chemistry 101 tutor.”

 

“Sounds like a deal, dude...as long as I can get some furry fanart in exchange!” 

 

Sean sputtered a little bit, cheeks red. “How...what?”

 

“The wolf with a moon pajama shirt is a dead giveaway. But it’s cool!” He reassured Sean, who’s heart rate had spiked a bit, with a small smile. 

 

“Thanks, man...um, it’s a deal?”

 

“Deal!”

 

-

The rush of classes, the budding of a friendship with Warren and some of his friends who had come from Arcadia Bay as well - Max, Chloe, Kate, and Nathan, getting used to all the responsibilities of pretty much living on your own took up a lot of time. Laundry, cooking dinner every night, grocery shopping. Of course, every chance he got he would skype Lyla or Dad and Daniel.

 

Three weeks into the semester and while Sean had fallen into a groove that worked for him, the intrusive images...they just didn’t stop. Some nights it was the man named Finn, slumped against a dirty couch, lifeless. Other nights it was dad again on their lawn. Or, some nights, Sean would see himself in the mirror. An eye stitched shut, pain pills, a struggle to learn how to draw. Drawing that man until his hand cramped.

 

He would cope by drawing what he saw in his dreams. A special sketchbook that rarely left the space underneath his bed. It was like clockwork. He’d go to sleep, wake up, draw for an hour in a panicked sweat, and manage to scrape together a few more hours of dreamless sleep.

 

It wasn’t ideal, but he was functioning. He could get through this, right? Besides, the nightmares had to give eventually, right?

 

-

 

Chemistry lab was cancelled for the afternoon, much to Sean’s relief. Which meant that he could head back to the dorm and maybe try and get some shut eye. Last night was another restless one, but a 45 minutes power nap before lunch would probably be just short enough to avoid any nightmares.

 

Sean was so lost in thought texting Lyla about his upcoming English paper that he hadn’t noticed he wasn’t alone in the hallway until he was outside his door. Standing there, spraying and wiping down one of the windows was him. He was in a custodian’s jumpsuit, but his hair, his posture, all of it. Unmistakable. 

 

He could feel himself spiral down, the world tipped on its axis once more. The gasp that escaped his throat was beyond his control and he dropped his keys to the room. Sean covered his mouth, back pinned against his door, and trembled.

 

It took a moment of the other man to notice, but he stopped a bit on his tracks, hands firmly on his cleaning cart to move down the hall. “Whoa…you look familiar…” He commented idly and Sean felt a lump well up in his throat. “...ah, the coffee shop, hey, uh! Small world, heh…”

 

Sean couldn’t stop the tremor of his hands at his sides if he wanted too, especially not as the pleasant smile on the man’s face - Finn, the maintenance nametag on his uniform confirmed - and he crept closer. “Y-Yeah…small world.” Sean tried to play off as visages of desperation and sadness shrouded his mind. ‘You got it, sweetie.’ He heard in Finn’s voice, clear as if he had just uttered it in the silence of the hallway.

 

“Look like you seen a ghost or somethin’. You okay, sweetie?” No way, no fucking away. Sean was flipping out mentally. 

 

“Sean. My name is Sean, not...sweetie.” He bit out a little harsher than he meant to, but it was taking all his energy to remain composed. Somehow, though, Finn’s presence calmed him. His hand still shook, though, and  idly he thought he wasn’t worthy of being called sweetie by this man, not that he didn’t like being called it. In fact, he craved so deeply to hear that pet name again. Where the hell were these thoughts coming from?

 

“‘Course, my bad, man.” Finn nodded, offering his hand. Sean shook it, noting the tattoos across his knuckles. The warm, calloused, and strong. He didn’t want to let go.  “Nice to meet ya, Sean…”

 

Sean nodded before he crouched down to pick up his keys, unlocking the door to his room. “Thanks, uh, for checking on me. I’m fine, though, seriously, dude.”

 

Finn nodded, a small smile curved his lips, the tattoos framed his face dashingly, the piercings a perfect compliment. “Glad to hear it, man. Take it easy. And uh, see ya ‘round.”

 

“Yeah, see you.” Sean felt almost dreamy as he shut his door and locked it. He was too antsy, restless to take a nap now. He couldn’t quite focus his creative juices enough to sketch, too preoccupied with the fact he hadn’t just imagined Finn. That he wasn’t some tragic character of a story that haunted Sean’s dreams. No, he was real and alive and Sean just talked to him.

 

For the first time since the coffee shop, Sean slept peacefully. He still had visions, vivid to the point of feeling real. But he woke up peacefully before his alarm went off and sketched himself beside Finn, staring up at a sunset that seemed light years away.


End file.
